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Coast 4U Quarterly, Spring 2013
Whale Tail® Dollars at Work
Read below about one example of a project that happened thanks to California drivers
who purchased WHALE TAIL license
plates. Find more examples of projects funded by the WHALE
TAIL® Grants Program on our website.
WHALE TAIL® Grants are sometimes awarded to organizations to purchase beach wheelchairs, which have large, wide wheels that can be pushed across the sand without sinking. They make coastal access possible for people who use regular wheelchairs, people with temporary injuries, or, say, older relatives who want to attend a wedding on the beach. (To look up the many California beaches with wheelchairs you can borrow, just visit our website.) One popular place for wheelchair riders to visit is Crystal Cove State Park. Crystal Cove Alliance received WHALE TAIL® funding to buy several beach wheelchairs, which are quite popular with their visitors. They received a thank-you note recently, and the writer has kindly given us permission to share his story with our readers. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did. "My almost 92-year old mother grew up on the beach at Long Beach. She also lived with my late father in Hawaii for 13 years, and returned to Southern California, specifically Leisure World in Seal Beach to live for the rest of her life. She has had a life-long love affair with the Pacific Ocean. She can recall dancing to the big bands on Balboa Island, cruising to Catalina, and days on end spent at the Long Beach Pike. Her health is fading, her breathing is labored; but she still has that spark of life that she'll have until her final day. Her spark was made much brighter by our visit to Crystal Cove yesterday. Even though she didn't haunt the Cove 'back in the day,' it's a slice of the California she knew growing up. It's as if someone opened up a 3-D memory album for her...the simple cottages, the lively yet relatively uncrowded beaches...she loved it, and we did too! Thank you...Thank you...THANK YOU for the awesome beach wheelchairs! Mom got closer to the water than she's been in years, and she loved every minute of it. I'm so very glad we got to be there with her...and thanks to your thoughtful and careful preservation, we were able to give her an outing that none of us will ever forget. 
Sincerely Yours, Kevin Felts" |